a short, thick roll of paper, soft leather, or some similar material, usually having a blunt point, for rubbing a pencil, charcoal, or crayon drawing in order to achieve subtle gradations of tone in representing light and shade.

13.

Cricket. each of the three upright sticks that, with the two bails laid on top of them, form a wicket.

verb (used with object)

14.

to reduce to a stump; truncate; lop.

15.

to clear of stumps, as land.

16.

Chiefly Southern U.S. to stub, as one's toe.

17.

to nonplus, embarrass, or render completely at a loss:

This riddle stumps me.

18.

to challenge or dare to do something.

19.

to make political campaign speeches to or in:

to stump a state.

20.

Cricket. (of the wicketkeeper) to put (a batsman) out by knocking down a stump or by dislodging a bail with the ball held in the hand at a moment when the batsman is off his ground.

21.

to tone or modify (a crayon drawing, pencil rendering, etc.) by means of a stump.

verb (used without object)

22.

to walk heavily or clumsily, as if with a wooden leg:

The captain stumped across the deck.

23.

to make political campaign speeches; electioneer.

Idioms

24.

up a stump, Informal. at a loss; embarrassed; perplexed:

Sociologists are up a stump over the sharp rise in juvenile delinquency and crime.

stump

n.

mid-14c., "remaining part of a severed arm or leg," from or cognate with Middle Low German stump (from adjective meaning "mutilated, blunt, dull"), Middle Dutch stomp "stump," from Proto-Germanic *stump- (cf. Old Norse stumpr, Old High German and German stumpf "stump," German Stummel "piece cut off"), perhaps related to the root of stub or stamp, but the connection in each case presents difficulties.

Earliest form of the word in English is a now-obsolete verb meaning "to stumble over a tree-stump or other obstacle," attested from mid-13c. Meaning "part of a tree trunk left in the ground after felling" is from mid-15c. Sense of "walk clumsily" is first recorded c.1600; that of "baffle" is first recorded 1807, perhaps in reference to plowing newly cleared land.

v.

"to go on a speaking tour during a political campaign," 1838, American English, from phrase stump speech (1820), from stump (n.), large tree stumps being a natural perch for rural orators (this custom is attested from 1775).